


Life after you

by momopichu



Series: Bone Lilies [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 13:54:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7760365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momopichu/pseuds/momopichu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short resolution piece to both 'Asphodel' and 'Vase of Ivory, Vase of Gold'</p><p>The Reaper approaches the angel for a chance to right what he wronged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life after you

_ And so it was; that the devil must walk in the hall of angels, so that he may confess his sins under their light and be cleansed anew. _   
  
Confessions, truths from the heart. Gabriel had never been very good at them.   
  
The setting sun cast its dying light upon the hospital room, streaming through large glossy windows, turning the room a myriad of flower pinks and royal blues amidst golden beams. A memory comes unbidden, of a younger, more carefree time -  _ Sagrada Familia, he was 10, the sunlight played with stained glass windows, dancing along the walls to the tune of hymns _ . The irony is not lost on him, that he must now sit in a room reminiscing of confession rooms, spilling his sins to a doctor who was close to being an angel herself.   
  
She listens, stone-faced, as the tale leaves cursed lips. Of how he had hunted the man he felt took everything from him. Of how he had cornered his prey and sank his remains amongst flowers of the dead. Of how he had taken his soul for his own, and payed the price with nightmares of regrets taken to the grave. He may as well have been speaking to one of the many stone sculptures of saints, so stoic and silent was her presence as he regaled his story.   
  
When he finishes, she moves to the window. The light halos her body with a warm glow, the wings at her back shuffle with the movement. They flex, they fold - neatly at her back.   
  
_ Anything to end the pain. _   
  
"You want me to save a dead man," she whispers.   
  
_ Anything to save a troubled soul. _   
  
"A man you killed with your own two hands."   
  
Gabriel hesitates, he is ten again, sitting before the Priest - forced to answer a difficult question he has no answer to. He brings one hand up, the black mist gathers around him like hungry hounds around a bone. They twist, they churn, they will not give up that which is rightfully theirs. He persists, forcing his will upon that which constantly consumed him. Slowly, the black mist relinquish their prize.   
  
The crimson pearl forms once more, balancing precariously in the centre of his palm. It teeters, afraid. So small, so fragile. And yet, the warmth made Gabriel feel as if he held the sun in his hands.    
  
_ Anything to save _ him.   
  
"Give me three days," Mercy murmurs.   
  
\---   
  
A wooden terrace garden, it was surrounded on all sides by the white walls of the hospital. Ivy climbed wooden beams and trees bordering the garden, great silver ferns in wooden boxes unfurled curved leaves in the afternoon sun. The garden was dominated by a pond at its centre, it's un-rippling surface was coated with lily pads of all sizes. There were no flowers in bloom.   
  
Gabriel sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, inches from the pond. He had misplaced his bone mask somewhere, his scars smoked gently with black mist. They hissed in his ear, parting with  _ his _ soul had angered them. They drifted across his eyes, under his nose - he swatted them aside. Like unruly children denied a treat, they came again to badger him. Beside him, the cyborg watched in silence.   
  
Genji sat cross legged as well, the light from the afternoon sun bounced off steel plates glowing a pearly white. Green shone at pistons on his shoulders and his visor. A gentle wind picked at the black scarf fixed into the back of his head, teasing it as it would a flag on a pole. Sparrows chatted above the duo, the lily pads shifted gently in the wind, sending ripples across the pond.   
  
"What will you do when he comes back?" Genji asks.   
  
Gabriel puffs, blowing out a stream of black smoke.   
  
"Dunno." He answers plainly.   
  
The cyborg inclines his head, a reasonable reply, he muses.   
  
"What will you do when he doesn't come back?" He asks.   
  
"He'll come back."   
  
Genji swivels his head to fix Gabriel with a green stare.   
  
"You have faith." It was a statement, not a question.   
  
"The doctor's been working miracles since I've known her," Gabriel explains, puffing out another long stream of smoke. "She can do it."   
  
"You ask her to resurrect a dead man."   
  
Gabriel watches the black mist dissipate in the air. The smell of old gunpowder fills his nose and he's there again - flowers shuffling and twining, engulfing a scarred and bloody body. He's twirling a stalk of asphodel in his hands.   
  
"She can save him," Gabriel insists. The mists gather in his ears, they whisper nonsensical words that put him on edge, they waft and drift, circling around him.   
  
The cyborg says nothing. Instead he moves closer to the pond. His grey metallic hands reach out to cup a flower bud growing on the glassy surface. A gentle pink, the bud stood a good few inches above the water's surface.   
  
"Do you know what this is?" Genji asks.   
  
Gabriel watches him, anything to take his mind off the bloody patch, anything to shut the black mists out. "A lily?"   
  
"A lotus," came the reply. "They grow in muddy water and yet remained unstained, reaching for the heavens. They symbolise purity of both body and mind, and above all - they are a symbol of rebirth."   
  
The cyborg gently caresses the growing bud before retracting his hand. Gracefully, he stands - mechanic muscles humming silently.   
  
"Let us hope the lotus is a sign for you - for both of you." Genji nods once "I will pray that it is so."   
  
Gabriel is left alone with his thoughts as the cyborg leaves.   
  
\---   
  
The doctor works tirelessly for three whole days. Not once was Gabriel allowed to enter her sanctum as she worked. He contemplates wraithing beyond the walls but thinks better of it, instead he spends his time in the garden - pondering the cyborg's words.   
  
When word finally comes for him , he lurches into the room - a mass of black seething fog. The doctor is unfazed. She shoos her shocked assistants out of the room like a mother does a child, before facing him. The angel's wings are ruffled, her hair is untidy and leaping, her blue eyes are flashing. He expects her to speak.   
  
An angel to a reaper.   
  
But she turns - a clipboard in one hand and a staff in another - she heads for the door. The door closes firmly behind her with a click and he is left alone. Alone with his body. The mists clamour in his ears,  _ he _ should be dead,   _ he _ should be theirs to devour, to consume.   
  
_ Enough. _   
  
They writhe in his grasp. They will not be denied.   
  
Light touched his eyes, blinding him. The rising sun peeked over the distant horizon, blazing through the windows of the hospital. The sky turned a brilliant blue with a tinge of emerald green and a speckling of ruby reds, he was ten again - singing hymns under the dappled lights of stained glass windows.   
  
The mists that had gathered tightly around him began to dissipate. Like a fog under the morning sun, they drifted apart, whispered words becoming echoes and then fading into nothingness. He was no longer the Reaper.   
  
Just a man, just Gabriel.   
  
A step at a time, he approaches the bed with the prone form upon its surface. Jack's face was serene in slumber, the scars crossing his face were faded, no longer biting. More scars and bullet wounds were scattered across the broad sinewy muscles of his bare chest, they rose and fell with the sleeping man's breath - they reminded Gabriel of tides at the beach. Across his heart was a new wound, sewed closed with threads of golden light. They felt of healing cuts and mending bones, they smelt of a doctor who was also an angel.   
  
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Gabriel takes Jack's limp hands in his own. Quietly he massages circles into the back of his hands. Everything is quiet but for the whirl of the machinery by the bedside. Then his voice, gruff and sleep-addled:   
  
"Nightmares?" Jack mutters   
  
Gabriel stops, his chest shakes - in sobs or in laughter - he can no longer tell.   
  
"It's stupid" he answers.   
  
\---   
  
In the garden, Doctor Angela Ziegler joins a meditating Genji. Silently, the cyborg awakes from his reverie to draw the doctor into a soft embrace. Together, they behold the pond within the garden.   
  
"I left them alone," she says.   
  
He nods, combing mechanic fingers through golden curls. "They'll be alright" he affirms.   
  
The pond is filled to the brim with lotus blooms, their pink blossoms unfurling in the morning sun.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> I actually intended it to be longer, but my brain is kinda in the drain right now.  
> Piece was named after the song 'Life After You' by Daughtr


End file.
